"Unexpected Joy at Dawn" By Alex Agyei - Agyiri (Themes/Thematic Preoccupation)

 

THEMES

(THEMATIC PREOCCUPATION)

 

 

Xenophobia in Africa

 

Xenophobia is a strong feeling of dislike, hatred or fear of people from other countries. The novelist explores its phenomenon as a theme – its causes and consequences.  In examining the causes of this hatred for one another includes bad government policy, vision less leaders, and the need to revenge and rewrite the past history.

 

 In the novel, xenophobia occurs in an attempt to right the wrong of the Ghanaian community at first.  According to Mama the then opposition party accused aliens, that is, non-citizens of ruining the country, or the government of that time has made a mess of its management of the affairs of the Ghanaian economy and blamed their failure to do things right  on us aliens as scapegoats.  Life becomes quite unbearable to learn that Mama Orojo and her family are unwanted in a country they have come to regard to be their home.  “We were aliens, they said and we had to regularize our stay”  (15) The journey to Nigeria is not without difficulties, as they stopped to bury someone each time the track stopped.  She buried her father and mother on her way.  Not heard about her grandma who refused to come with them.

 

 Consequently, the economy of Ghana grows from bad to worse and the working personnel and technocrats are forced out of the country.  The country begins to go through a terrible drought as a result of widespread crop failure, primary products fall on foreign markets and the burden of the country worsened.  It is a period of economic gloom, a period when Nii Tackie even as assistant Manager in a bank has to do part time teaching job to survive.  It is a period of panic economic measures like the withdrawal from circulation a fifty cedis notes, the national currency highest denomination which has made the people poor heart broken.  This also sparks off a frosty relationship between the natives and the immigrants, leading to Xenophobia attack as a medium of communicating their discomfort and disapproval against foreigners.  Both the natives and the non-natives alike are affected Aaron Tsuru, the proprietor of Ant Hill brick is forced to abandon his career as a result of his inability to secure loan from the bank to stay in business owing to bad government policy.  Both Nii Tackie and Aaron Tsura abandon their dream careers to travel to Nigeria for greener pastures.  Another consequence of Xenophobia is undue brutality victimization on the part of security personnel who take advantage of the situation to maltreat the citizens and non citizens alike.  Such incident occurs at the market when a ten year old girl is being chased by an armed soldier for selling at above ‘control price’

             Worse still.  Nii and Aaron meet the highest xenophobia attack in Lagos as soon as they get to Nigeria border.  As all Nii’s efforts to survive in Ghana failed woefully, he decides to come to Nigeria to start life anew and also to search for his sister whom he has not seen for many years now. And this time around, the Nigerian government has also come out with a policy to flush aliens out of the country which is a reprisal of xenophobic attack Nii who is a Nigerian by blood is said to wallow in pain and anguish because he cannot speak any language.  His tribal marks and family name could not save him.  Nii soon finds out that it takes more than a tribunal mark and a family name to claim citizenship.  He is therefore taken capture by an officer to work in a cassava farm to buy back his freedom in his own country.  Nii had to pass through the trauma of fruitless search until fate eventually unite him and Mama Orojo, his sister in Nigeria.

 

Quest for reunion

 

            The need of reunion is another important theme explored in the novel.  It is about two siblings who long to meet each other,  after fifteen years of traumatic separation by the vicissitudes of life.  Their reunion is symbolic of the possible settlement of two warring country, Nigeria and Ghana. In the novel, Nii Talkie who is based in Ghana and Mama Oroji based in Nigeria are two Nigerians blood relation, separated by two deportations.  The first one occurred which Mama Orojo was still young and living with her parents when the Ghana government enacted a law of Alien Compliance Order in 1969, forcing all aliens without resident permit to regularize their stay in the country.  Her great grandparents had migrated to Ghana several years ago. 

 

The reason for this separation is that the opposition party had accused aliens of ruining the country or the government of the time had made mess of its management of the affairs of the Ghanaian economy and blamed their failure to do things right on the aliens.  Their journey to Nigeria was hectic and uneventful as so many people died in the truck while on their way including her own parents.  Her endless search for her brother, Nii is met with enormous stress and pains.  She goes back to Ghana to search for Nii, starting from Expense Bank, where Nii worked briefly to make ends meet. Mama in company of Joe visits so many places in search of her brother all to no avail.  Not until fate smiles on her in Nigeria.

 

              However, the road to reunion is not also smooth on the part of Nii Talkie.  It is not without a bitter or agonizing price to pay. Nii experience a bit of suffering lack, pains, sorrow and hatred in Ghanaian a result of harsh Ghanaian economic. Nii, though an Assistant Manager at Expense Bank, he still engages in part time teaching job to meet up his needs.

 

 The anxiety and worry about his wife, Massa who is diagnosed of a terminal sickness and her eventual death at Korofidua hospital fights him greatly.  Nii abandons her corpse at the hospital to take refuge in Nigeria. Also, Nii escapes economic hardship in Ghana and goes to Nigeria in search of his family in order to start life anew, armed with the conviction that with a Yoruba tribal mark and a family name, he would easily trace his root to his family.  His arrival in Nigeria coincides with another deportation in Nigeria, asking all aliens, about three million in number to leave within two weeks.  Nill soon finds out that it takes more than a tribal mark and family name to claim citizenship.  He should understand or speak one Nigeria language.  Finding his life balanced or knife edge, he must walk the tight rope of negotiating his way to the ancestral fold at Ijase. This does not happen without a huge price to pay to accomplish it.  Nii is captured alongside his friend.  Aaron Tsuru and others at the Nigerian border after Nii is severally beaten by the man who conveys him to the border over certain amount of money said to pay.  Captured by one of the security agents, Nii and others are taken captive as slaves to work in a cassava farm.  His attempts to escape fails woefully until the government decide to ameliorate the situation by asking all aliens to be taken to Haji camp.  Nii and Aaron escape and head straight to Ijase.

 

 Fortunately, Nii’s journey to Ijase is not without tears and anguish as he lost his dearest companion, Aaron Tsuru shortly before he meets his sister,  Mama after fifteen years of separation.  It is dawn on Nii that it is a thing of joy to live through difficulties knowing that there is hope as this unexpected joy occasioned by his sudden reunion with his sister, Mama is seen as an invigorating one.

 

Search for identity and identity crisis

 

 The novel explores the question of identity, that is, the individual  characteristics by which a person is known or recognized and identity crisis which is distress orientation resulting from conflicting uncertainty about oneself and one’s role in society.  The nature of search for identity in the novel is both psychological and ethical.

 

             For example, the Ghana society has made it possible to displace the natives and non natives which also make them faceless without identity The more they try to assert their identity, the more the harsh economic policy bites them hard.  Nii Talkie, for instance, suffers from identity crisis greatly.  He is unsure of his society, and not dully recognized in his place of birth, Ghana and his nationality, Nigeria.  In Ghana, he is branded as alien in spite of the fact that he bears Ghanaian name and lived in Ghana all his life.  The society expects him only to come to his own country, Nigeria to meet another identity problem.  Nii escapes economic hardship in Ghana and goes to Nigeria in search of his identity, his family in order to start life anew, he beams in elusive hope with the conviction that with a Yoruba tribal mark and a family name, he is sure that he can easily trace his roots in his family.

His arrival coincides with a deportation order asking all aliens to leave the country.

 

             However, Nii’s experience back in Nigeria is a direct testimony of how difficult it is for Africa to integrate in its post-colonial society.  The society has lost the identity and also finds it difficult to define who is a Nigerian and who is a Ghanaian?  What does citizenship entail? Although Nii does all that is possible to prove that he is a Nigerian, he is not accepted as one and risks begin deported back to Ghana where he is escaping. Everywhere, he attempts to prove his Nigerian Citizenship, he is confronted with the question of language. “You can’t speak Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, or any authentic local language, you see and you say you are a Nigeria? |(151). His dogged  determination to claim his identity becomes fruitless at some point and he persists.  “I am not asking to be given citizenship.  “I am claiming it as a right, look at my tribal marks.  I have told you of my parentage, told you of my sad story, how I have deprived of parental care due to a barbaric un-Africa unconscionable law over there” (151).

 

     Therefore, Nii numerous problems in Nigeria which are based on his being considered a stranger on African identity grounded on flimsy national differences.  Nii expresses his disgust for identity problem through a symbolic ritual of blood covenant when he draw.  Blood from incisions and put it in the midst of the thirsty and dying deportees whose only identity is their collective predicament.  Nii’s struggle for identity sees the light of day when he eventually meets his sister, Mama.

 

 Marshak is another character whose search for identity could not yield any good result.  She is a fugitive prostitute in Nigeria and she is ever willing to turn a new leaf and carve a better identity for herself, but the society would not allow her.  She may be a prostitute but the most important thing is that she wants to free herself like Nii, she is also looking for an opportunity to mend and redeem herself from a life of filth imposed on her circumstances at home and in her country.  She takes her own life because, according to Nii, “Marshak had been nursing some fear the fear of a hopeless future (247).

 

 In addition, the Ghanaian government of the day has also lost its identity and it is now faced with the problem of identity crisis because of its insensitivity and inability to make law that will benefit the general masses. The armed soldiers are used as puppet or war dog to promote anarchy.  For instance, the government does not consider the plight of the masses before they enact law about the withdrawal from circulation of fifty cedis notes, the national currency’s highest denomination.  And the new law about all savings in bank above fifty thousand cedis should be frozen is another heartless law that makes the government visionless. A certain woman named Auntie Joe who has lost forty thousand cedis dies of heart attack as a result.

 

Corruption and societal decadence

 

             This novel also captures the spate of a corrupt society with high societal moral decadence. The two governments. Nigeria and Ghana are liable for the two problems we are able to discuss.  Firstly, the Ghanaian society is portrayed as a corrupt and filthy one where the environment and economic is in total mess with outright mismanagement of public funds.  The security personnel at the border where Nii and others try to escape collect bribe from him in order to facilitate their escape. They also experience another form of corruption when they get to the Nigerian border.  A certain security man captures Nii and others in an attempt to cross Nigerian border.  They are subsequently and singlehandedly taken to cassava farm where the other will use them as slave before they can regain their freedom.

   Mama also have a fair share of this corrupt society when she bought a fake gold ring from a man called I-put-it-to-me, whose identity has never been traced.

 

 Also, the entire environment is in total mess.  The Kantamanto market that used to be the pride of the town is gutted by unexplained fire which destroyed part of its frame.  The Korie Lagoon that supplies water to the town now stinks as people now defecate in it.  The lagoon also habours some criminals who go about smoking marijuana.  Nii attempts to answer the call of nature, he comes across what draws his attention.  He beholds an object covered with cloth which turns out to be body of a dead woman.

 

             The religious homes are not also free from this corruption and moral decadence.  This is seen in the occasion when Nii visits a spiritualist for confession, the fee for corruption is said to be so high that Nii had to think otherwise.  Amen Kristi refuses to honour the marriage between Mama and Joe on the ground that Joe is not a Nigerian but recommend Tom Monday as the only alternative.  Religious organization are supposed to promote peace and oneness and not to aid and abet xenophobia and tribalism.

 

             In addition, all manners of corruption can also be traceable o the civil servants, and business men.  The nation’s mineral wealth is dubiously controlled by unscrupulous gem dealers like Joe and Tally O.  These are aided in their enterprise by people like Naidoo, a friend of Joe who serves in the Mineral Boards and works part-time supplying insider information to the gem cartel are also aided by operatives of the state security apparatus, like the corporal who leads Mama to Joe at the Beyeeman office complex so that Mama can buy genuine gold.  Also, the leader of the Susu union absconds with the market women’s money leaving his wife and children.

 

Nii on his part dumps his dead wife, Massa, at the Koforidua Mortuary and leaves.  to further juxtapose the level of decadence and corruption, the novelist summarizes it all when her says “The country was not ready for its creative thinkers inventors and innovators” (75)

 

Characterization

 Mama Orojo

Mama Orojo is the central character in the novel.  She is Nii Tackie’s lost sister who has long be separated from him in about fifteen years.  She was separated from Nii by the 1969 deportation which took place in Ghana as a result of Alien Compliance Order urging all non-natives to either obtain some papers or leave the country.  Her journey to Nigeria was uneventful and she lost her parents on the way to Nigeria.

  She is down-to earth, humble and caring.  She demonstrates this when she defies all odds and rescues a child from the inferno that raised the full building down.  The father of the child (Fumi) appreciate mama’s effort.  Joe also praises her to the sky for being a super hero. She is also selfless and this makes her risk her life to save others, she is a self-made-woman with the capacity and ability to stand up to any situation. Tom Monday cannot help but admire her.

            Mama is also a Philanthropist.  She gives selflessly and this is evident in her constant donation to help the work of God in Amen Kristi.  Even when the church members are divided over whether she should be allowed to marry Joe in the church or not, she never seems to withdraw her supports from the church programme or crusade.  She is straight forward and she never allows her church to discourage her from marrying Joe because some sections of the church refuse to give her approval owing to the fact that Joe is from another tribe.

Mama is a good business woman who prefers to deal with genuine  products, but she is not careful when she bought limitation gold from a man airborne that is still at large.

 In addition, she is determined to search for her reunion with her brother.

The journey to accomplish such onerous task takes her back to Ghana where she finds a future life partner, Joe and brings him back to Ijase,

Nigeria where fate finally smiles at her.  Her reunion with her brother, Nii marks the beginning of her unexpected Joy.

 

 Nii Tackie Moses

 

 Nii Tackie is Mama Orojo’s lost brother Massa’s husband and Marshak’s unfortunate boyfriend.  Nii is a Nigeian by blood but a Ghanaina by birth, he remained in Ghana as his parents made the tortuous journey to Nigeria when Ghana enacted the Aliens Comilance Order of 1969, which made every person living in Ghana without the required papers an alien.  His name was changed to reflect the name of his adopted parents.

 

  Nii’s character is said to be inscrutable, that is, he’s difficult to understood.  One can neither say that he is soft hearted nor hard hearted because he has proven on two occasions that he is soft hearted.  He demonstrates this in the bank. where he serves as an Assistant bank manager towards, Aaron and Joe.  He tries to provide them with alternative procedure in order to grant them loan all to no avail.  Also, he can be adjudged to be hard hearted for abandoning his wife, Massa at the Korofidua Mortuary and runs to Nigeria after so many years of terminal ailment.  This also makes him irresponsible and selfish.

             Nii has thick skin to withstand problems.  This is seen in his dangerous journey to Nigeria, fraught with death in the person of Aaron and leader of susu union bribery, swindling and gun-point robbery and making it to Nigeria Nii realizes that again, tribal mark and a name do not also make him a Nigerian, More is required and it is the one which he lacks the most such as the ability to speak a Nigerian language.  He moves from being a slave in someone’s cassava farm to living in slums, to deportation camps to be a building labourer.  He is also labeled an armed robber and this is when he meets Mama, his sister again.

Finally, Nii meets Mama under strange circumstances as soon as Nii and Aaron abscond from a deportation Haij camp and went hiding in an uncompleted building.  The people have mistaken them for armed robbers and are rushing on them.  Mama and Joe, her gold dealer lover sights Nii. His determination, doggedness and resolute spirit pave way for him to experience unexpected joy at dawn in the end.

 

 Aaron Tsuru

 

 Aaron is Nii Tackie’s friend whom he met in Ghana when Nii is still working with Expense Bank.  He is the managing director of Ant Hill Brick.            As a building technology engaged in soil research who is also hoping to enter estate development.  Mr. Tsuru goes to the bank to seek financial support from the bank for his project.  Because of Ghana harsh economic condition, his file or application is not considered.  Worse still, Aaron’s business suffers great lost as a result of the government’s law that restrict the withdrawal of amount worth fifty thousand cedis.  He is then instructed by the bank to obtain a letter from the A-Gbefore he could withdraw.

             However, after having a date with frustration in Ghana.  Aaron meets him at the border and claims that he drops the idea of obtaining loan to support his business after Expense Bank frustrated his efforts. Both meet again at the deportation camp parting ways at the border.  Their friendship grew stronger and are willing to work together as a team to search for greener pastures and to start a new life in Nigeria.

 Aaron is a dreamer and a prophet.  His never say-die spirit is worthy of emulation.  In spite of circumstances surrounding him, he still believes that Ant Hill Brick must rise again.  He also foresees his own death when he sustains severe injury at the construction site.  His head and neck become swollen as a result of the severity of the injury.  His death comes immediately he jumps down floor when the people of Ijase raise alarm and take them for suspected armed roober.  His dreams for a better future are deferred and lost out to unexpected joy at dawn.  Mama and Nii give Aaron the originator of Ant Hill befitting burial.

 

 Joe Owura Ku

Joe is a business man who deals in gold and diamond known as Duga.  He is Mama’s lover and he falls in love with her while working as partner in gold business.  Joe is also a victim of harsh economic quagmire and bad government policy.  Firstly, his application for bank is not considerable at all by Expense Bank.  He will have to obtain a letter from Attorney-General before he can make a withdrawal of above fifity thousand cedis from his account.

  Joe is a strong business man who is every smart to invest on new businesses.  Joe believes in offering of bribe.  He goes to the landlord of Beyeeman Complex to obtain another room to expand his business but the old man disappoints him without right resistance.

  He is a strict discipline business man, because he never allow his relationship with Mama affect his business.  To some extent, Joe can be attributed to be an honest business man which helps cement his relationship with Mama and this leads to a union between himself and Mama.  On the contrary, Joe still deals in illegal mining.

             However, Joe’s success in life is a mixture of chance and hard work.  He has done so many odd jobs with little or no success.  Joe was first an apprentice tailor who fix buttons on uniforms before his old friend Kuuuku introduced him to mines business who was already doing well.  Tally O. who is also his friend encouraged him to embrace the business.  And it is this mine business that has taken him to this height.

 

 

 Massa

              Massa is Nii Tackie’s sick wife who hails from Sampa.  She is an orphan adopted by certain parents.  Her terminal disease or aliment seems to defy all forms of treatment because the doctor in charge of the treatment has passed a death sentence on her, she has just few days.  The health workers have wished her all the best.  Nii has realized that Massa is dying slowly each second.  Life has just began to treat both of them well two years before until suddenly she is taken ill.

 Fortunately, a friend has recommended them to see a spiritualist, known as “God is beyond science”.  This time she is already a shadow of her former self “She was already looking like a grandmother at twenty two” (8).  She vomits spits and defecates in her sleeping position owing to the ailment. Nii then takes a bold step to convey her to the spiritualist home and she unfortunately dies on their way.  Nii who is already fed up with the hardship in the country and the inability of his bank and teaching  job to sustain him, abandons her corpse at the Korofidua mortuary and runs away, until Mama and Joe trace Massa’s corpse to the mortuary and gives her a befitting burial.

 Symbolically, Massa represents the living physical condition, political, social and moral decay, she represents the nation in labour, hanging on tenaciously to life by the thinnes of threads, Like the collapsing state of Ghana, looking at her, “It was difficult to tell whether she was just lying silent or dying” (8)

 

 

 Marshak

 

 Marshak is Nii’s friend who is a fugitive prostitute.  Nii met her at the Hotel Irohin while Nii was working as a slave in cassava farm.  Her father was shot dead during the revolution at home and all their properties confiscated. The revolutionaries claimed that her father was a reactionary and a saboteur.  Her mother and her two sisters were smuggled across the border at Elubo, and they are now in the Ivory Coast.  “You can imagine what they do for a living” (174) Marshak submits upon meeting Nii. Marshak has made a decision to be a change person and get married someday.  She may be a prostitute but the most important thing to her is that she wants to be free. She is looking for an opportunity to mend and redeem herself from a life of filth imposed on her by circumstances at home.

             One unfortunate thing happens to Marshak that Nii would live to remember.  Marshak finds it difficult to change her ways.  She continues to play ball with men, even some immigration officers were her customers. Nii visit her on that fateful day and meets her in the pool of her own blood and he’s informed that she attempts to abort a baby but Nii still believes that she takes her own life.

 

 Linda

 

  Linda works as a secretary at the Expense Bank with Nii Tackie and she hails from Ghana.  She tries to flirt with Nii in order to obtain favour from him.  Linda is very cunning and deceitful, because she convinces Nii to travel to Lagos with her despite Nii wife’s condition at home.  As a desperate and easy virtue woman, she pesters Nii, and even offers herself to him so that he can grant her request.  “I will let you have me for free here and in Lagos too…  I know your wife is sick, quite sick and has not been well for a long time”  (120) Linda sounds desperately.  She divulges her intention and reason for selling herself to Nii as soon as Nii is ready to push her aside and runs away, free himself from the temptation ahead.  Her husband wants her to join him in London but could not get a British visa in Ghana.  She wants to take Nii to Nigeria with her and claim to be her husband, to obtain the visa there.

 Linda succeeds in achieving her dubious plan when she eventually travela to Nigeria to book another guy who was ready to dance to her tune.  She discloses this to Nii when they later met at Haji camp as a victim of alien deportation from Nigeria.

 

 Tally O

             Tally O is Joe’s old friend who persuaded and convinced Joe to consider the business of mines that Kuuku introduced him to.  Like Joe, Tally O was very poor, for he tried all available odd jobs until both himself, Billy and Joel take to mining business.  His death marks the end of illegal  Doga business.  He has lived a life full of disaster but had to survive.  He once confessed to Joe that his life lacks genuine meaning.  He died on the last day of their operation in mine field. Tally O slips and lands himself in a ditch when the guards are after them.  The rest members feel it will be dangerous leaving him behind.  Someone volunteers to use axe to smash his head to conceal their identity.  He dies and they cover him in the hole.

 

 

 

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE STYLE

 

1.  Diction:  Unexpected Joy at Dawn is divided into  two parts of unequal chapters.  The language is simple and easy to understand.  The narrative has a vocabulary that is pervaded by economic Jargons or terminologies that may pose a little difficulty for someone who is not economically inclined.

 

2.    Plot narrative style:  Unlike most Nigeria prose narrative, which is usually linear, Agyei – Agyiri uses cyclical narration plot.  Events in the plot structure are not narrated chronological, rather the novelist narrates the event in an alternate manner for instance, the novelist tends to talk about events surrounding Mama Orojo and leaves part of the event half way to discuss Nii before he comes back and complete it.

 

3.    Omniscient point of view:  The story is narrated using the omniscient or third person point of view, which involves the narrator knowing everything that happens in the society, including character’s thoughts.  In the novel, a lot of information about the two principal character and past events are provided to the reader by the narrator.  It is the narrator that tells us the situation in the Ghanaian society.

        There is also a mixture of a participatory first person limited narrative voice to describe how Mama and her parents died on the way to Nigeria when the Ghana government enacted law about alien Compliance Order asking all alien who did not have residential permit to evacuate the country. There is influx of the use of first pronoun, me, us, us,me, etc.

 

4.    Symbolism:  The setting of the novel is symbolic of the social, political and social malaise which is terribly affected.  The novelist employs symbolism as a metaphor for social disintegration as he describes the novel as “the story of a nation in labour”.  The two countries especially Ghana is likened to a woman who is about to deliver of a baby when nobody knows what she will give birth to.

     Also, Nil’s wife, Massa whose terminal illness is the note on which the novel opens, represents the physical replica of the political, social and moral decay.  She represents the nation in labour, hanging precariously in air.  Like the collapsing state of Ghana looking at her “it was difficult to tell whether she was just Iying silent or dying” (8).  Her dying state is symbolic. of a dying nation which no long has neither the capacity nor the decency to contain its own people.  Her death marks the end of Ghanaian society.

 

LIKELY WAEC AND NECO 2021-2025 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS

 

1.     Discuss the setting of the novel with the trappings of history.

2.     Justify the assertion “Ghana is a nation in labour” in relation to the incidents

        in the novel, Unexpected Joy at Dawn.

3.     Examine the role and character of Joe in the novel.

4.     Assess the theme of xenophobia and alien attack in Africa in the novel.

5.     Examine the theme of societal decadence in the novel.

6.     Critically examine the friendship between Aaron and Nii Tackie

7.     Comment on the character of Mama Orojo as a hardworking and

        focused woman.

8.     Examine any three narrative techniques employed by the novelist in the novel.

9.     Attempt a character portrait of Nii Tackie

10.   Comment on the significance of Massa’s ailment and her death in the novel.

11.   Compare and contrast Joe and Tally O as characters.

12.   How is Mama Orojo portrayed in the novel?

13.   Write short notes on the following (i) Linda  (ii) Tally O  (iii) Massa

14.   Give a detailed account of the death of Aaron Tsuru in the novel.

15.   Assess the use of symbolism in the novel